With the bulk of the holiday celebrations having come and gone, you might be sitting around the dried-out Christmas tree counting up all those random gift cards you received. While you appreciate the generosity of your friends and family, you just don’t have any desire to make a purchase with said cards. To that end, a number of retailers are willing to offer you a trade; joining the ranks of Walmart, GameStop, and Coinstar this year is Target. [More]

It’s a simple question, and a little shocking that we have to ask it. I mean, it’s not like Staples specializes in technology or anything. Our tipster was shocked himself when he discovered this curious fact. His full story, inside.

A reader signing off as “Sucker” wants to let the world know that Circuit City’s extended warranties/replacement plans aren’t living up to the sales pitch. When he bought his XBOX 360, the salesperson assured “Sucker” that if the XBOX broke (as they tend to) that instead of having to wait around for a replacement — he could get a refund in the form of a gift card. He accepted. Guess what didn’t happen?

Amazon failed to deliver a $75 gift card reader Michael purchased for a business associate in 2004. Michael was notified of the failure in 2006, and issued a claim code worth $75. When Michael tried to use the code, it came up as invalid. Michael called Amazon and went through three representatives before reaching a supervisor.

She eventually decided that the reason the claim code was not working was because Amazon had expired it after sending it to me, and there was nothing she could do. It didn’t matter that Amazon’s web site said that gift certificates sold to people in Massachusetts don’t expire. It didn’t matter that Massachusetts state law required that the gift certificate remain valid for a minimum of 7 years (or forever if it doesn’t clearly state an expiration date, which is what actually applies to this case). It didn’t matter that Amazon had never sent the gift certificate to the original intended recipient, it didn’t matter that Amazon had told me it was valid right before expiring it, what mattered was that the gift certificate had expired and so there was nothing that could be done.

We recently posted a story in which an Apple customer was having difficulty buying an Apple computer with 8 gift cards that could not be combined or used together without visiting an Apple store 3 hours away, despite the fact that Apple’s website says there is no limit to the amount of gift cards that can be used when calling 1-800-MY-APPLE.

Suggestion: You mentioned that Best Buy was selling non-ipod MP3 players and offering a $50 gift card to boot. [We mentioned that here. -Ed.] I bought one and then found out the person I bought it for had just that day got one. So I returned it. Which left me with the $50 gift card. It puts me in a bit of an ethical bind as I’m not sure whether or not that’s stealing. But the less ethically challenged might want to think about doing that. Or that may be a bit beyond suggestions you are willing to make.